Paul Engle
Paul Hamilton Engle (October 12, 1908 - March 22, 1991) was an American poet, editor, teacher, and literary critic, perhaps best remembered as a long-time director of the Iowa Writers' Workshop and as founder of the International Writing Program, both at the University of Iowa. Life Engle was born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, to Evelyn (Reinheiner) and Thomas Allen Engle, a livery stable owner. He grew up in the Wellington Heights section of Cedar Rapids. He graduated from Washington High School in Cedar Rapids, then attended Coe College, the University of Iowa, Columbia University, and Oxford University (where he studied as a Rhodes Scholar). As a student at Iowa, Engle was an early recipient of an advanced degree awarded for creative work: his first collection, Worn Earth, which went on to win the Yale Series of Younger Poets. His 2nd book, American Song (1934), was given a rave front-page review in the New York Times Book Review and was even, briefly, a bestseller. From 1954 to 1959, Engle served as series editor for the O. Henry Prize.Paul Engle 1908-1991, Poetry Foundation, Web. He co-edited the 1962 anthology Poet's Choice. Engle is sometimes mistakenly credited with having founded the Iowa Writers' Workshop (an honor that more appropriately belongs to his predecessor, Wilbur Schramm). Nonetheless, perhaps no one helped to better establish the reputation of the venerable writing program than Engle. During his tenure as director (1941-1965), he was responsible for luring some of the finest writers of the day to Iowa City. Robert Lowell, John Berryman, Robie Macauley, Kurt Vonnegut and many other prominent novelists and poets served as faculty under Engle. Additionally, Engle increased enrollment and oversaw numerous students of future fame and influence, including Flannery O'Connor, Philip Levine, Sunil Gangopadhyay, Donald Justice, Raymond Carver and Robert Bly. During his tenure, Engle raised millions of dollars in support of the program whose shape and direction proved the model for the hundreds of writing programs that have followed. In 1967, following his departure as director of the workshop, Engle and future-2nd-wife Nieh Hualing co-founded The University of Iowa's International Writing Program, which provided for dozens of published authors from around the world to visit Iowa City each year to write and collaborate. Engle left the Writer's Workshop permanently in 1969 to devote himself full-time to the international program. For his work with the IWP, Engle was nominated (along with Hualing Engle) for a 1976 Nobel Peace Prize. At the time of his death (in Chicago's O'Hare Airport on his way to accept an award in Poland), Engle was the author of more than a dozen collections of poetry, a novel, a memoir, an opera libretto (for Philip Bezanson), and even a children's book. In addition, Engle wrote numerous articles and reviews for many of the largest periodicals of his day. His papers are held at the University of Iowa,http://www.lib.uiowa.edu/spec-coll/MSC/ToMsC550/MsC514/msc514.html and Coe College.http://www.public.coe.edu/departments/Library/FindingAids/Paul_Engle.htm Publications Poetry * Worn Earth. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press (Yale Series of Younger Poets, XXXI), 1932; London: Humphrey Milford / Oxford University Press, 1932. * American Song: A book of poems. Garden City, NY: Doubleday Doran, 1934; London: Cape, 1935. ** reprinted, AMS Press, 1979. * Break the Heart's Anger. Garden City, NY: Doubleday Doran, 1936; London: Cape, 1936. * Corn. New York: Doubleday Doran, 1939. * New Englanders. Muscatine, IA: Prairie Press, 1940. * West of Midnight. New York: Random House, 1941; Toronto: Macmillan, 1941. * American Child: A sonnet sequence. New York & Toronto: Random House, 1945. ** revised & enlarged as American Child: Sonnets for my daughters. New York: Dial Press, 1956. * The Word of Love. New York & Toronto: Random House, 1951. * Book and Child: three sonnets. Iowa City, IA: Cummington Press, 1956. * Poems in Praise. New York: Random House, 1959. *''An Old-Fashioned Christmas'' (illustrated by Eleanor Pownall Simmons). New York: Dial Press, 1964. * A Woman Unashamed, and other poems. New York: Random House, 1965. * Embrace: selected love poems. New York: Random House, 1969. * Images of China: Poems Written in China, April-June, 1980 (preface by Hualing Nieh). Beijing: New World Press, 1981. Plays *''Golden Child: A Christmas opera'' (libretto; music by Philip Bezanson). New York: Compass, 1960. Novel * Always the Land. New York: Random House, 1941. Non-fiction * Prairie Christmas (essays). New York & Toronto: Longmans, Green, 1960. * Women in the American Revolution. Chicago: Follett, 1976. * A Lucky American Childhood (foreword by Albert E. Stone). Iowa City, IA: University of Iowa Press, 1996. Juvenile *''Golden Child'' (illustrated by Leonard Everett Fisher). New York: Dutton, 1962; Toronto & Vancouver: Irwin, 1962. *''Who's Afraid?'' (illustrated by Ray Prohaska). New York: Crowell-Collier, 1963. Translated *Mao Zedong, Poems of Mao Tse-Tung (edited & translated with wife, Hualing Nie). New York: Simon & Schuster, 1972.Search results = au:Paul Engle, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Centre Inc. Web, July 26, 2014. Edited *''West of the Great Water: An Iowa anthology'' (edited with Harold Cooper). Iowa City, IA: Athens Press, 1931. *''The New Oxford Outlook'' (edited with Richard Crossman & Gilbert Highet). Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1935. *''American Prefaces: A journal of critical and imaginative writing''. Iowa City, IA: University of Iowa Press **Volume II, No. 2 (November, 1936) - Volume V, No. 10 (Summer 1940), edited by Wilbur L. Schramm with the assistance of Paul Engle and others **Volume VI, No. 1 (Autumn 1940)-Volume VII, No. 1 (Autumn 1941), edited by Wilbur Schramm and Paul Engle **Volume VII, No. 2 (Winter 1942)-Volume VIII, No. 3 (Summer 1943) edited by Paul Engle and others. *''Ozark Anthology'' (edited with G.F. Newburger). Cedar Rapids, IA: Torch Press, 1938. *J.G. Sigmund, Selected Poetry and Prose. Muscatine, IA: Prairie Press, 1939. * Reading Modern Poetry: A critical anthology (edited with Warren Carrier). Chicago: Scott Foresman, 1955. ** revised edition, 1968. * Homage to Baudelaire: On the centennial of "Les Fleurs du Mal". Iowa City, IA: Cummington Press, 1957. * Midland: Twenty-Five Years of Fiction and Poetry from the Writing Workshops of the State University of Iowa (edited by Engle, assisted by Henri Coulette & Donald Justice). New York: Random House, 1961. *''Poet's Choice'' (edited with Joseph Langland). New York: Dial Press, 1962. * On Creative Writing. New York: Dutton, 1964. * Midland: Twenty-five years of fiction and poetry (. New York: Random House, 1970. * The World Comes to Iowa: Iowa international anthology (edited with Rowena Torrevillas & Hualing Nie). Ames, IA: Iowa State University Press, 1987. O.Henry Prize stories *'Prize Stories of 1954: The O. Henry Awards'' (selected & edited by Paul Engle & Hansford Martin). Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1954.'' *'Prize Stories of 1955: The O. Henry Awards'' (selected & edited by Paul Engle & Hansford Martin). Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1955.'' **'Prize Stories of 1956: The O. Henry Awards'' (selected & edited by Paul Engle & Hansford Martin). Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1956.'' *'Prize Stories of 1957: The O. Henry Awards'' (selected & edited by Paul Engle assisted by Constance Udang). Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1957.'' *'Prize Stories of 1958: The O. Henry Awards'' (selected & edited by Paul Engle assisted by Curt Harnack). Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1958.'' *'Prize Stories of 1959: The O. Henry Awards'' (selected & edited by Paul Engle assisted by Curt Harnack & Constance Udang). Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1959. Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy University of Iowa.Richard B. Weber, Paul Engle: A checklist," Books at Iowa 5 (November 1966), University of Iowa. Web, July 26, 2014. See also *List of U.S. poets *List of literary critics References External links ;Poems *"Hero" *Paul Engle 1908-1991 at the Poetry Foundation. *Paul Engle at AllPoetry (10 poems) ;Quotes *Paul Engle quotes at Brainy Quote ;Books *Paul Engle at Amazon.com *Paul Engle: A checklist at University of Iowa ;About *"Remembering Paul Engle in Iowa City" by Robert Bly] ;Etc. *The Papers of Paul Engle at The University of Iowa (includes short biography) *Paul Engle Papers: George T. Henry College Archives, Coe College Cedar Rapids Iowa Category:American poets Category:American novelists Category:American short story writers Category:American academics Category:Coe College alumni Category:University of Iowa alumni Category:Columbia University alumni Category:Alumni of the University of Oxford Category:University of Iowa faculty Category:1908 births Category:1991 deaths Category:Iowa Writers' Workshop alumni Category:20th-century poets Category:English-language poets Category:Poets